Wednesday, December 03, 2008

I've featured this party a few times in these pages, but it's worth another look. This is directly across Blount Street from Moore Square Park in Downtown Raleigh. Moore Square is one of three green spaces downtown that I know about. Nash Square and Capitol Square are the other two -- though a case could be argued against Capitol Square actually being considered "green space" since the old State Capitol Building sits right in the middle of it.

I digress.

Every other Saturday during the summer, Moore Square is the site of a free concert series known as "Downtown Live". The acts vary, but are primarily aimed at the college-aged crowd, which makes no sense really since NCSU and the other colleges in town are out of session except for summer school. The bands usually ramp up at about 2 PM and play until around 11 (when local noise ordinances say it's time to quiet things down). Best of all? There's no charge for admission (though the concessions on the grounds are typically outrageous enough to make up for it).

This was the final show of the season and featured Saving Abel, Eve 6 and Puddle of Mudd as the headliners, plus an equal number of lesser known acts during the afternoon. But on this night the lineup probably didn't matter since the students had just come back to school at NC State (only a few blocks west of the Square). Take roughly 15,000 new and returning college students, add 9 hours of free live music, sprinkle liberally with plentiful malt beverages, bake in the late august sun for several hours and what do you get? Human Crush, that's what.

The venue and/or sponsors don't allow fancy schmancy cameras with interchangeable lenses (like mine) inside the park for these events. And while yeah, I probably could've gotten it past the security gate, I decided I really didn't need the hassle. But outside the perimeter was fair game.

I have to try the sepia now that I have actually opened the PS Elements that I bought. Your live music is similar to what we have in downtown Buffalo NY called. 'Thursday's In The Park" during the summer. The nice thing is that it isn't geared toward collage kids, but plays jazz or oldies and being an oldie myself, I like that. Thank you for your kind comments on my WW post. I am lucky to have moved here with the pond right outside the door...